Michigan

Mertila Jones, the grandmother of Aiyana Jones, testified during the manslaughter trial for Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley. Photo is screen shot from ClickOnDetroit.com live stream of the trial.

Detroit Police Officer Joseph Weekley testifies during his trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm causing death, in Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit, Mich., on Thursday, June 13, 2013. Weekley is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. She was killed during a chaotic police raid to find a murder suspect at a Detroit house in 2010. (AP Photo/The Detroit News, David Coates)

DETROIT —The credibility of a witness is of utmost importance, most lawyers agree.

Mertila Jones was the only eyewitness, other than defendant Detroit Police Special Response Team Officer Joseph Weekley, who saw her 7-year-old granddaughter, Aiyana Jones, shot and killed on May 16, 2010 when police raided her home in search of murder suspect Chauncey Owens.

In most regards, she is the prosecution's star witness.

It is her changing story and other inconsistencies that could seal a not guilty verdict for Weekley, who claims Jones slammed his gun, causing him to unintentionally fire. Weekley said he didn't feel his gun go off, but realized it had when seconds later, after leaving the room and returning, he saw Jones straddling her dying grandchild.

Soon after the death, Jones said she believed the gunshot came from outside, possibly confusing the flashbang grenade thrown through the front window with a gunshot. In court last week, she described the shooting more like an assassination.

"They came to kill," she said, "and they killed a 7 year old."

Jones told the court she watched Weekley aim his gun at Aiyana before it fired and could see no remorse in his eyes.

Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran spent a portion of his closing statements trying to preserve the remaining value of Jones' testimony.

"We know that Officer Weekley, I said from the very beginning, did not intentionally kill Aiyana Jones," Moran said to the jury. "Think about what she sees as this man, the defendant, in full riot gear, has this gun in his hand as he walks into her house. The gun goes off... her granddaughter is killed and she witnesses the whole thing.

"This is a woman who just saw her granddaughter be shot in the head and they put her in handcuffs... and put her in a cell... So when you think about how she testifies on the stand, think about how this department treated her."

The discrepancy in the manner of the shooting was not the only testimony that potentially damaged Jones' credibility.

She was asked several questions by defense attorney Steven Fishman about her knowledge of Chauncey Owens, the suspect and eventual convict of the murder of 17-year-old Je'Rean Blake outside a party store in broad daylight near her home two days prior to the raid.

Police testified that Owens, her daughter's fiance who lived in the upstairs apartment of the two-unit home and who'd often been in Jones' apartment based on police surveillance, rode a moped, one of the vehicles seen on the day Blake died.

Jones claimed no knowledge of Owens owning a moped.

Fishman asked if Jones knew how or why there were 14 shell casings discovered in the home's backyard — a state police investigator later said the total number of bullet casings found on the Lillibridge property was closer to 30.

"I've never been in my backyard," Jones responded.

Moran asked Jones and several other witnesses who lived at the Lillibridge home if they had seen any guns in the home or were aware of any of the occupants owning guns. None were discovered during the police raid.

Jones said she had not.

On Monday, Fishman presented photos from the Facebook page of Mark Robinson, who lived in the home, depicting multiple witnesses flaunting handguns and an AK-47. Moran argued there is no telling when or where those photos were taken.

Although Jones is his Facebook "friend" of Robinson, she claimed to never have seen the photos or guns at the address, adding that one looked like a "toy gun" and the other "a BB gun."

In his closing arguments, Moran asked the jury to "forget about 'The Firs 48,' forget about Mertila Jones" and "think about what the obligations were of the defendant."

"Think about what he is supposed to do when he had that gun in his hand entering the house," Moran said. "He was supposed to keep his finger off the trigger.